#2 Off to a Good Start

A Great Start

...never felt so alive


 It's the first week of school I've been picking up my pace fast at school. Time flies when you get busy, and I got quite busy even for the first week of school here, I've got my work in my Malaysian Students Association, I've got a lot of classes to attend to, I had quite some work assigned to me at my part-time job, and many more to come on #3. 

 Speaking of which, I tried to find some extra part-time job this week to get more extra income. I went for an interview for a part-time job at a steamboat place near my home, a place I have always been to because, to be honest, Taiwanese steamboat are so nice and much better than Malaysian steamboat, albeit more expensive. The owner of that steamboat shop has basically employed me but there are still some things that needed sorting out before I can start my work there, so fingers crossed there! 

 Besides, I got accepted to work at the international students' office of my school, not much as I've only got allocated 60 hours of working quota for the 18 weeks coming during the semester. So as for now, I have got 3 part-time jobs not including the steamboat place yet, it'd be a heck of a semester just on work but I am inclined to think that I would be able to handle it.

 Still, I've been fighting with constant procrastination this week. I've got lots of work to do but I am still piling up my work to a later date, not really urgent work but still, I have got to deal with my constant procrastination towards work and stuff or else it might, as usual, become a hindrance in all I want to achieve.

 At school, I have been challenging myself to take up more classes that I have never wanted to take as I was afraid that my results would be pulled down by them. "Hell, I've got nothing to lose," I told myself, and I took it up as it would be a big help in my future investment portfolio. I've decided to take up a module on enterprise evaluation and risk management, like Warren Buffet said, the trick is to know how to evaluate a firm, only then you can make a sound decision on investing in a company. Well, I guess I had to start somewhere.

 Overall, I think this week is a good start for me on my 52 weeks challenge and I will keep up on it, I feel kinda alive since I started doing this challenge, maybe it's because I am actually keeping track of what I am doing to achieve my goals? Not too sure about that, but to be honest, I am looking forward to looking back on all my posts on #52 and see how much of a change I have achieved.

About Studying Abroad

I thought I could just make this post into my #2 post but I have decided that since I am free, I might as well spend my time into writing this post about studying abroad.

 I have been studying abroad for almost two years now, although it is not too far away in the global sense, it is far enough in the sense that it is a hassle to go home frequent. Ever since I started high school, I have had the dream of studying abroad to countries that I have never been to, although my only study-abroad destination back then was only Japan.

 In the end, I realised my dream of studying abroad and it was nothing really like what I have expected - getting to know many foreign students and having fun studying and enjoying a picturesque life, nothing like that. I have been in the comfort of my home ever since I am born, I do not have to think about food, money, daily routines and stuff, everything is scheduled properly for me and I only had to follow it and everything would go just fine.

 Ever since I came to study in Taiwan, I have been battling with many anxieties that I have since this island nation has (almost) everything that defied my expectations - it's not as clean as I thought it is, people here are not as friendly as I thought it is, food here is not as friendly as I thought it is, it is not as developed as I thought it is. Sure, some may beg to differ or even dispute what I am saying here, but this is purely my own feelings about this country and it doesn't and shouldn't matter to anyone else, especially those taking offence for it.

 Point is, I was so anxious about everything that defied my expectations and I had some hard time trying to make myself used to the new environment there, luckily I had some mental support and over time, I was able to get used to it and be more independent in facing many problems here and stuff. 

Being Homesick

This is the thing that I have really not expected. I have never thought that I am a person that can feel homesick since I haven't been exactly a family-centric kind of person, or so I thought. I remember myself leaving the bus terminal in Ipoh with my grandma sending me away, I'd always remember how she looked sad to send me away with tears in her eyes. For all my life, my grandma has been a very strong person and I have seen her cried once when my grandpa passed away more than 17 years ago and that was the only time. The second time was at the moment she sent me away. I knew if I'd ever felt homesick, it will be because of my grandma.

The first two months of me in Taiwan went well because it felt more like a vacation for me since everything is new and I am still trying to adapting to many different new things in that new environment. 

The first time I felt homesick was on my grandma's birthday on 11th November that year. I was in Taiwan, I couldn't be with her and thought of her feeling lonely over there back in Malaysia. I thought of how much shorter and weaker she had become over the years. Grandma is getting old. 

It hurts when I had that thought in my mind and I wanted to spend some time with her, caring for her and have a good dinner with her to make her happy that night but distance made it impossible for me to do so. It was hurting to think that I might not have a lot of time left to spend with her because let's be honest, she is getting old. That day I knew, that I might be a little family-centric after all.

I went back to Malaysia for the first time in May 2018 since I went to Taiwan, it was for the election, so I had the opportunity to go back home for a little while.

 I went back home alone at that time and it was a crushing moment when I entered my home. It was empty, the air is dead, it was dirty, it feels like it was deserted. It was crushing to me to see that scene because for all of my life, the house has been clean and it was always filled with human activities and the voice of my grandma. But this time, there's none.

 I started rewinding my memories back to the previous year before I went to Taiwan, I remember my grandma always keeping stuff into boxes and covering many things - to prepare to move out of the home to my uncle's after me and my brother went to Taiwan. I started to understand how she felt when she was keeping all the stuff, the sorrow, the anxiety of moving to a new place, and the loneliness above all - to leave the place she has been calling home for almost 30 years and having to say goodbye to everything. It must've been hard for her, and I didn't understand it back then.

 I was there, standing in the middle of an empty house, feeling crushed from all of the feelings.
The thing about studying abroad is, besides the usual perspective-opening and experience-gaining part, is that it brings out something about myself that I haven't known before. I never thought I would feel homesick, I never knew how much I love my grandma up till the day when I felt the heartache because I couldn't spend time with her. It brought out the part of me that I had never thought I had.

 If I had not started studying abroad, I wouldn't have started appreciating many of the things that I have always taken lightly of. 

 Soon I will be going back to Taiwan after spending a month back at home, no matter how much I am unwilling to return back to Taiwan, I had to. At least I will see my grandma again soon, this time she's going to Taiwan.
A sunset view of my school

#1 A New Start and a Challenge

A New Beginning

...with a new challenge


It is Chinese New Year and I decided that my blog needs a reboot so I did a facelift for my blog which decidedly needs more polish in the future. For the year 2019, I have decided to make some changes in my life and how I live so that I could achieve some goals that I have set out to reach within a new school semester and within the year.

 I have actually been setting out semester goals for each semester since the last two semesters and I have been getting mixed results with various degrees of achievements. As for the coming semester starting on the 18th February 2019, I have decided to record the goals that I want to achieve and make a log in the form of a blog post describing what I have been doing and how it relates to the aim of achievement of my semester/annual goal. I thought that this is a good way for me to reflect on what I have been doing so far and how I should improvise in the future.

 I have decided to make this a Challenge for me as I will be trying this method out for one year straight starting from this week. This means that the challenge will be down for 52 weeks straight with one blog post be written every week until the counter on the post title reaches #52.

 I do sincerely hope that I do not procrastinate on doing all these extra work that I have assigned to myself as well as I will persevere through this journey. Doing this makes me feel like I am actually doing something for my future rather than always just sitting around and procrastinate. By making myself review on myself every week, I would be able to become more conscious about what I am doing every day and I would be able to improve my daily routine to become more productive.

 Now, I have been thinking of a few goals that I want to achieve within the next semester and within the 52 weeks period starting from this post.

 Semester Goal:
  1. Achieve Monthly Income of at least NT$ 8,000
    2.  I will achieve a monthly income of at least NT$8,000 within this semester independent of any scholarships by looking for extra part-time jobs.
  2. Finish Reading a Japanese-written Novel
    3.  I have chosen the book「君の名は」to be finished reading within this semester to improve my Japanese.
  3. Finish Reading a Book in Investment
    4.  I will choose a book in the field of investment to start reading on it as I intend to start doing investments to supplement my passive income.
  4. (Optional) Finish on the Web Development Course
    5.  This would take more than a semester to finish but I intend to finish the online course that I have bought many years ago. The best investment to make is the investment made on oneself.

 Annual Goal:
  1. Achieve Intermediate Proficiency in Spanish
    2.  I have started learning Spanish recently and my goal is to be able to have a smooth daily conversation in Spanish by #52.
  2. Double my Cash to the Amount I have in my Fixed Deposit
    3. I have recently placed some funds into a fixed deposit and by #52 I will have cash double the amount currently in the fixed deposit.
  3. Retake JLPT N1 Exam in December 2019
    4.  I haven't been happy with my JLPT N1 result and I intend to retake the exam and score at least 120 on it.
  4. Start an Investment Portfolio
    5.  With the Cash that I will have in #52, I will allocate 20% of it into an investment portfolio.
So, there I have all my goals to achieve for this semester and for this year, I wish myself all the best in the pursuit of said goals and I'd like to see myself achieving all my goals on #52.
＃千里の道は一歩から
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